e had been unfortunate. "I don't want to have anything to do
with unfortunate men," was the reply. The necessity of choosing
a director was not, however, evident, but communication was opened
with Professor Holden as well as myself to an extent that I did not
become aware of until long afterward.

The outcome of Mr. Mills's visit was that in December, 1874, I was
invited to visit the European workshops as an agent of the Lick
trustees, with a view of determining whether there was any chance of
getting the telescope made abroad. The most difficult and delicate
question arose in the beginning; shall the telescope be a reflector
or a refractor? The largest and most powerful one that could be made
would be, undoubtedly, a reflector. And yet reflecting telescopes
had not, as a rule, been successful in permanent practical work.
The world's work in astronomy was done mainly with refracting
telescopes. This was not due to any inherent superiority in the
latter, but to the mechanical difficulties incident to so supporting
the great mirror of a reflecting telescope that it should retain its
figure in all positions. Assuming that the choice must fall upon a
refractor, unless proper guarantees for one of the other kind should
be offered, one of my first visits was to the glass firm of Chance &
Co. in Birmingham, who had cast the glass disks for the Washington
telescope. This firm and Feil of Paris were the only two successful
makers of great optical disks in the world. Chance & Co. offered
the best guarantees, while Feil had more enthusiasm than capital,
although his skill was of the highest. Another Paris firm was quite
willing to undertake the completion of the telescope, but it was also
evident that its price was suggested by the supposed liberality of an
eccentric California millionaire. I returned their first proposal
with the assurance that it would be useless to submit it. A second
was still too high to offer any inducement over the American firm.
Besides, there was no guarantee of the skill necessary to success.

In Germany the case was still worse. The most renowned firm there,
the successors of Fraunhofer, were not anxious to undertake such
a contract. The outcome of the matter was that Howard Grubb, of
Dublin, was the only man abroad with whom negotiations could be
opened with any chance of success. He was evidently a genius who
meant business. Yet he had not produced a work which would justify
unlimite